All good things come in threes - Aller guten Dinge sind drei

Yep, I know... It's because of the crafting projects that you drop over at this blog and not because of its recipes. But I wanted to post something nice so badly and my next project is so laborious and will take so much more time... Anyway I hope you enjoy this cake that you most likely don't know yet:

It's a Santiago Tarte: 

Ja, ich weiß... Dies ist eigentlich ein Crafting-Blog und kein Back-Blog. Und Ihr schaut hier wahrscheinlich auf der Suche nach neuen Crafting-Ideen vorbei und nicht, weil Ihr das dritte Kuchenrezept in Folge lesen wollt... Nicht enttäuscht sein! Ich arbeite gerade an einem etwas aufwendigeren Projekt und möchte in der Zwischenzeit wenigstens einen klitzekleinen Artikel posten - und sei es "nur" ein Rezept :-) 

Dafür ist es allerdings ein Kuchen, den Ihr wahrscheinlich noch nicht kennt: 

Eine "Tarta de Santiago". 

 It's named after Santiago de Compostela - yeah, right... where the Road to Santiago (Way of St. James) ends, in northwestern Spain. 

Benannt ist die Torte nach Santiago de Compostela in Galicien, im Nordwesten Spaniens, vor allem bekannt, weil hier der Jakobsweg endet.

This tarte is the typical cake of this city and it's a simple combination of a sweet shortpastry and an almond filling. You can find the recipe in one of the best spanisch cooking books ever: Culinaria Spain. It's authentic, has great articles about spanish culture and fantastic photographies, by the way.

Die Mandeltorte ist eine lokale Spezialität und meiner Meinung nach schmeckt sie am besten, wenn die Mandelfüllung in einem knusprigen Mürbteig gebacken wird. (Manch eine Touristen-Nepp-Santiagotorte besteht einfach nur aus der gebackenen Mandelfüllung. Nicht halb so lecker!)

Ein Superrezept könnt Ihr im Culinaria España Kochbuch finden. Ohnehin eines der besten Kochbücher über die spanische Küche - authentische Rezepte, tolle landeskundliche Artikel und fantastische Fotos! 

Okay, here we go: 

What you'll need: 

For the pastry

200grs flour

75grs sugar

100grs butter

1 egg

For the filling

4 eggs

250grs sugar

lemon zest

250grs ground almonds

a pinch of cinnamon

How you make it: 

• Knead flour, sugar, butter and egg until you have a nice homogeneous pastry. Then put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

• In the meantime prepare the filling. Whisk sugar and eggs, add lemon zest, then the almonds and the cinnamon. Mix all together.

• Roll out the shortpastry and put it into a greased pan. (The edges have to be approx. 4cm high) Fill in the almond filling and bake for approx.30 minutes (180°C).

• Dust with confectioners's sugar and if you like decorate with the St. James cross. I made a simple cardboard template for it.  (see picture below)

So... und nun zum Rezept. Im Grunde ein sehr einfacher Kuchen bestehend aus einem Mürbteig und einer Mandelfüllung.

Das braucht Ihr: 

Für den Teig

200g Mehl

75g Zucker

100g Butter

1 Ei

Für die Füllung

4 Eier

250g Zucker

Schale von einer Zitrone

250g gemahlene Mandeln

1 Msp. Zimt

Mehl für die Arbeitsfläche

Fett für die Form

Puderzucker

So geht's:

Mehl, Zucker, Butter und das Ei zu einem glatten Teig verkneten. Evtl. etwas Milch dazugeben, falls der Teig zu trocken ist. 30 Minuten kalt stellen.

In der Zwischenzeit die Füllung vorbereiten. Dazu den Zucker und die Eier schaumig rühren. Die abgeriebene Zitronenschale dazu geben. Dann die Mandeln und den Zimt unterrühren.

Den Mürbteig ausrollen und eine gefettete runde Form damit auskleiden. (Der Rand sollte ca. 4cm hoch sein)

Die Mandelmasse hineinfüllen und den Kuchen bei 180°C ca. 30 Minuten goldgelb backen.

Nach dem Auskühlen mit Puderzucker bestäuben. Wer mag kann den Kuchen mit Hilfe einer einfachen Papp-Schablone mit dem traditionellen Kreuz der Jakobsritter verzieren. Geht ganz einfach und macht was her ;-) 

And to thank you for keeping at this post although it was a recipe ;-) here is a little sneak preview to the next project. 

Und weil Ihr bei der Stange geblieben seid und nicht direkt bei dem Wort "Kuchenrezept" weggeclickt habt, hier eine kleine Vorschau auf das, was kommt - wann weiß ich allerdings noch nicht :-)

hmmm... what will the after-picture look like?

Hui, ui, ui... was das wohl wird? ... :-)

Yummy - The second one

I found this recipe some months ago. I cut it out of a girly magazine on 1996 (!) and forgot about it ever since. But I vaguely remembered that it tasted good back then and so I tried it out.

I like it because it looks original and tastes fresh and fluffy. And it's a fast recipe... you knead the dough, you roll it out, cover it with jam and almonds or hazelnuts, wrap it, chop it, put it into the pan and bake it... that's it... no long waits, no difficult moves... So give it a try!

But before I post the recipe, here is a whole other subject: Many followers of the blog are from Germany and I know that some of them use to check only the pictures because they don't like to read in English. And I've kept wondering for a while now if I should write in German, too. But how? There is no elegant solution to this problem, I guess. I would love to have two tabs, an English and a German one, so that you can switch between the two languages... or two flags to choose the language of the blog. But I didn't find these possibilities in blogspot. So I've decided to simply post the different versions one after another in different colours. I hope you don't mind that there will be some differences between the two versions because German is my native language and, who knows, probably I'll get a little chatty :-). Well, I will give it a try, see how it works and  check out whether I feel comfortable with it or not...  And I would appreciate your feedback by the way ;-)  Tell me if you like it or not, please.

So! Los geht's! Jetzt probier ich mal mein Glück und schreib auf Deutsch! 

Ich weiß ja, dass einige von euch nicht gern auf Englisch lesen, und ich hoffe, Ihr habt auf diese Weise mehr Spaß an diesem Blog. Aber ich will auch nicht verhehlen, dass das Ganze ein bisschen eigennützig ist, denn ich würde mich freuen, ab jetzt mehr (deutsches) Feedback von euch zu bekommen. Es würde mich interessieren, wie euch der Blog gefällt, wofür euer kreatives Herz schlägt, was euch inspiriert, was ihr für Entdeckungen gemacht habt... hach... das wär' schön!

Und bevor ich jetzt ins Plaudern gerate, fange ich lieber gleich an und poste das versprochene Rezept!

Tataa! Ich präsentiere den ersten zweisprachigen Blogeintrag auf yencamade:

 

 

Wrapped Curd-Cherry-Cake 

Quark-Kirsch Wickelkuchen

 

 

Ingredients

Curd-oil-dough:

250g curd (should contain 40% fat)

8 tablespoons oil (a neutral one like sunflower or corn oil)

6 tablespoons milk

1 egg

100g sugar

450g flour

1 sachet vanilla sugar

1 sachet baking soda

additional flour to dust your working space

Filling: 

225g cherry jam/marmelade

100g minced almonds or hazelnuts

butter and breadcrumbs for the pan

1 yolk and 1 tablespoon milk to coat the cake

confectioner's sugar   

Zutaten

Quark-Öl-Teig

250g Sahnequark (40%)

8 EL neutrales Öl

6 EL Milch

1 Ei

100g Zucker

450g Mehl

1 Päckchen Vanillinzucker

1 Päckchen Backpulver

Mehl zum Bestäuben

 

Füllung

1/2 Glas Kirschkonfitüre (225g)

100g gehackte Mandeln oder Haselnüsse

Fett und Paniermehl für die Form

1 Eigelb und 1 EL Milch zum Bestreichen

Puderzucker

• Drain the curd about 15 minutes.  
• In a bowl stir curd, oil, milk, egg, sugar and vanilla sugar. 
• Mix flour and baking powder and gradually add the flour mix to the batter.  
• Knead until you get a nice elastic dough. 
• Roll out the dough (approx. 30 x 40 cm)
• Coat the dough with jam and dust with almonds/hazelnuts. Leave some margin (approx. 2 cm) to the long edges
• Roll up the dough from the long side and cut the dough into 12 even slices
• Lay the slices into a buttered and dusted pan (approx. 22 cm diameter)
• Coat the cake with yolk-milk-mix
• Bake for 35 minutes in a preheated oven (200°C)
• Dust with confectioner's sugar before serving
• If you like serve vanilla cream with it

• Quark 15 min abtropfen lassen
• Quark, Öl, Milch, Ei, Zucker und Vanillezucker in einer Schüssel verrühren
• Mehl und Backpulver vermischen, nach und nach zum Teig geben 
• Teig mit den Händen kneten bis ein elastischer gleichmäßiger Teig entsteht
• Teig rechteckig ausrollen (ca. 30 x 40 cm)
• Mit Konfitüre bestreichen, dabei an den langen Rändern ca. 2 cm Abstand lassen
• Mandeln oder Haselnüsse darüber streuen.
• Von der Längsseite aufrollen
• In 12 gleich große Stücke schneiden
• In eine gefettete und mit Paniermehl bestäubte Springform (22cm Durchm.) legen
• Kuchen mit Eigelb-Milch-Gemisch bestreichen
• Im vorgeheizten Ofen bei 200°C 35 min. backen
• Nach dem Abkühlen mit Puderzucker bestäuben
• Lecker dazu ist Vanillesahne 

Sundays like these...

... are precious. Sitting in the garden, sipping a cup of tea or coffee, talking to friends or family and enjoying a nice juicy slice of cake.
Here is one of my favourite cake recipes (another one follows in a couple of days):

Redwine-Cake (looks a little boring but ... ohhhhh... sooo gooood!)

Ingredients:

175g dark chocolate

300g butter

300g sugar

6 eggs

3tsp cocoa

2 sachets of vanilla sugar

1-2 tsp cinnamon

400g flour

1 1/2 sachets of baking soda

1/4l redwine

•  Preheat oven to 150°C
• Chop the chocolate
• Cream butter on low speed until light and fluffy
• Gradually beat in sugar until light and fluffy
• Separate the eggs and drizzle the yolks into the butter-sugar mix one by one
• Add cocoa, vanilla sugar and cinnamon and beat until the batter is smooth
• In another bowl sift together flour and baking soda
• Alternately add flour mixture and redwine to the batter, a little of each at a time, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
• In another bowl beat the egg whites until stiff
• Carefully fold in the egg whites and the chopped chocolate
• Butter a bundt cake pan and dust it with breadcrumbs
• Fill in the batter and bake until a cake tester inserted into center of each layer comes out clean, aproximately 1h 15min. 
• Dust with confectioner's sugar before serving
•  Enjoy!

Another one!

Summertime!
But it seems that we had our "summer" in may already. It was cold and rainy lately but a few weeks ago we were able to go swimming and enjoy the sunny hot weather. It was then when I realised that I needed a light summer sleeping bag for Lucas. And as the pattern for the last one was nice and easy to sew I made another one.
And here it is (this time with an application):

Welcome the outdoor season!

The weather is getting better, sun is shining, birds are singing... you know what this means: It's picnic time! 

But as the ground is still cold and sometimes a little wet a picnic blanket would come in handy.

For this one ( aprox. 1,45m x 1,45m) I used oilcloth that I bought from IKEA (there are different colours) and a ready-made fleece blanket. If you want it to be extra cozy you can insert some batting. 

So it was a really unexpensive and fast project.

Enjoy springtime everybody!

Always nice: Endless loop scarves!

I wanted to sew a loop scarf for a while now, but I didn't find nice fabric to make one. 

Now I've found beautiful jersey fabric and made two of them. Both are really cozy but the brown geisha-scarf is a little wider and I guess it would be perfect for autumn while the blue-yellow one is a good spring or summer scarf. But I'll need a lighter one for the summer, too. 

I'll keep an eye out for some nice fabric and show it to you when it's ready.

(You can find a tutorial on Happy Serendipity for example.)

Little spring project

Hey there again!

I guess with all the sunshine-outdoor-activities in the last weeks I kind of lost sight of the blog. But at least there was some crafting lately!
I've made a little baby beanie hat and a matching scarf. This is a very satisfying project by the way. It is quick and practical.

 

The scarf is a simple triangle-scarf with a zig-zag-seam all around. No secrets :-)

And the beanie consists of two parts: 

 

You can copy the pattern from a beanie hat that fits the baby right now:

I usually fold the paper and cut it out to get a symmetrical pattern:

Then I sewed the parts together. I had to use the strech-zig-zag-stich because I dont't have another one. You can use the simple strech stich, of course. It is even better because the seam won't crimp.

Now you fix the second part:

Ok, and then you only need to sew the brim on by using a blind stich. (On the right side, of course) 

And because I liked the first one I made a second one. But this time more colourful.

That's it... Easy as I promised. Give it a try!